Faith in God, altruism and a willingness to embrace hard work may be inadequate executive management qualifications in a world that worships MBAs. But those attributes were all S. Truett Cathy needed to create a billion-dollar chain based on nothing more than boneless chicken breast sandwiches.

 Based in Atlanta, Chick-fil-A is one of the nations largest privately held restaurant chains. The company's motto is, WE DIDN'T INVENT THE CHICKEN, JUST THE CHICKEN SANDWICH. Today sales have grown to more than $1.2 billion and they have experienced growth for 34 consecutive years.  What makes this story even more remarkable is that Cathy is a committed Christian and has taught a 13 year old boys Sunday school class in Jonesboro, Ga., for more than 50 years, and his stores do not open on Sunday, one of the biggest sales days for restaurants.

 A Georgia native, he grew up in Atlanta during the depression. At the age of eight, he showed his entrepreneurial skills by setting up a Coca-Cola stand in his West End Atlanta front yard. While operating his beverage stand and delivering the Atlanta Journal in his downtown public housing neighborhood of Techwood Homes, Cathy developed the people first business philosophy that distinguishes Chick-fil-A today. In a recent interview with NBC Nightly News, Cathy said, "I see no conflict between Biblical principles and good business practice. Corporate America needs faith in something more than just the bottom line."

 Many times Cathy has been asked why Chick-fil-A has not gone public, which is unusual for a restaurant chain of its size. His answer is that, "Too often Wall Street analysts are more interested in profits than they are in principles and people. If I had a widow invest her savings in Chick-fil-A and the company didn't pay the return she expected, I would feel obligated to make up the difference to her. Feeling that way about it, I might as well sign the bank note and be personally responsible rather than take other peoples money." He also believes the reason many companies fail is their desire to grow faster than they can manage. When a downturn comes along they have to lay people off. As he says, "You don't build a good reputation by discharging people, but rather by developing people."

 Truett Cathy has written a new book titled, Eat Mor Chikin: Inspire More People.  Cathy shares many life lessons for business, family and faith, encouraging readers to open themselves to unexpected opportunities to make a difference in someone else's life. The author of this book certainly lives what he preaches. Along the way to his 80 plus years, he has built eleven foster homes for the more than 150 children who call him Grandpa, and sponsored scholarships for 16,500 Chick-fil-A restaurant employees.

 For about 10 years I had two restaurants, and I often thought, “I wish I had just one restaurant!” So when one restaurant burned to the ground, I asked, “What’s next for Truett Cathy?” Chick-fil-A was born out of that experience.  I always wanted to offer chicken, but because chicken took too long to cook, we built our business on hamburgers and steaks and on an extensive breakfast menu. But deboning the chicken cut cooking time in half, and because it was easiest to debone breast meat, we concentrated on that.  The seasoning we used was a combination of all the seasonings we had in the restaurant. We found that it was pleasing to everyone, and chicken sandwich sales began to exceed hamburger sales.   When we introduced those chicken sandwiches to other restaurants, we lost control of the quality, so we opened up the first business under the name of Chick-fil-A in Atlanta.

56 years ago, we decided to close on Sundays, and it’s probably the best business decision we ever made. At the time I did it because I was in the habit of going to Sunday school and church and being with my family. I didn’t want to be robbed of that. It was easy to make that decision, because our first restaurant, the Dwarf Grill, was a small place with four tables and chairs and 10 stools at the counter. We worked 24 hours a day, six days a week, so it was easy to decide to be closed on Sunday.

Our Sunday policy has been a great advantage in attracting the caliber of people whom we like to attract. People are responsive to this -- they may not attend church, but they appreciate that we stick to our convictions.  I don’t condemn businesses that are open on Sunday, but it’s just not for me. God has blessed us for this. We have not suffered. When people say, “Look how much money you lose by being closed on Sunday,” I answer, “You’re wrong, because we generate more sales in six days than our competition does in seven.”   So stable is his market position that Cathy cheerfully claims to even be helping the competition, noting that "some of our competitors in the malls tell me that they wouldn't have made it if we didn't close on Sundays!"

 Saying yes to God on the job does not always precipitate financial or career success. Applying our faith invites both triumph and trial. For those who genuinely devote their work to God, though, the challenge is to recognize that God is at work regardless the outcome. Our God is the real Boss, the inerrant consultant for every decision, and the immovable anchorman in this daily tug-of-war. And He promises us success (in His eyes) when we unalterably stand by our commitment to Him.

 Cathy has been a Sunday School teacher to 13-year-old boys at First Baptist Church, Jonesboro, Georgia, for more than 50 years. He shared the same message with his Sunday School students, "Know who your Master is, know what your mission is, and carefully choose your mate."

 He says, “Fifty years ago I chose to teach Sunday school to thirteen-year-old boys because it is such a critical age—perhaps one of the last opportunities to make a lasting impact before they make decisions that will permanently affect their lives.  Over the years many children living in difficult home situations have come under my influence.”  Cathy mentioned his recent goal for his Sunday School: "We intend to put two bibles in every public school [library] in Georgia."

 The sixth of seven children, Samuel Truett Cathy was born in Eaton, Georgia, in 1921. As a youngster he helped his mother run a boarding house and at the same time delivered newspapers and operated his own business selling soft drinks.  He remembers, “In the early 1920s my father lost our farm, and he never really recovered.  As often as she could, my mother listened to the radio broadcasts of Charles E. Fuller and she always made sure we were clean and ready to go to church on Sundays.

At age 12 I became a Christian, and I was fortunate to have Sunday school teachers who were meaningful to me in my life, because I did not have a supportive father to whom I could go with problems.  For a time we lived in government-supported housing, and I would go with my Sunday school teacher around the housing project to recruit class members.

 His mother ran a rooming house and served meals for her boarders. Cathy says that’s how he learned the restaurant business, shucking corn and shelling peas by the time he was eight years old. He became an entrepreneur soon after, when he realized that he could make a profit by selling the bottles in a six-pack of cokes individually – he bought the six-pack for twenty-five cents and sold each bottle for a nickel, profiting one nickel per six-pack.

 He says, “Knocking on people’s doors and asking them to buy a Coke from me demanded an awful lot of courage.  As a little boy I had a speech impediment so severe I could not pronounce my own name.  My mother wrote my name on a card so that if I had to introduce myself to strangers I could let them read it.  I remained tongue-tied for years and as a consequence was quite shy.  As I grew I had to make myself step out from my timidity.  When I got to the point of giving more than 100 public speeches a year , I saw how the Lord took one of my greatest weaknesses—my earlier difficulty in speaking clearly—and used to magnify His purpose.

 The Bible says, “All things work together for good to them that love the Lord, to them who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).  I never thought that would mean my balding head would keep me out of World War II, but it did.  Instead of being sent to the front lines, I fought the war with a typewriter.

 Regarding his faith, Cathy said, “The Lord was working in my life early. I went into the restaurant business when I was eight-years old and I met my wife at eight-years old. I have felt His presence for most of my life. I feel a divine guidance that you have by just serving people--serving a necessity of life which is food. God has given us an opportunity to have a positive impact on each one of our customers as well as our employees, especially through the books and tapes we give away. I have relied on God so many times over the years for guidance and direction and He has helped me through many problems that I have been unable to cope with. Most of us fare pretty well when nothing's going wrong, but it,s when we have trying times, faced with problems we can't handle, that we have to depend on God. I,m thankful that I've done that from an early age. This is the message I try to get across to young people: there comes a time in your life when you need to invite Jesus Christ to come into your heart, and only he can give you hope now and for eternity.”

 Truett Cathy said, “[My wife] Jeanette made an immediate impact on my spiritual life, for while I had been a committed Christian, her level of commitment showed me a new way to live.  She hadn’t had a father in her home growing up, so she had to rely on the Heavenly Father, committing her life to the Lord when she was five years old.  Her mother did not attend church, but that didn’t keep Jeannette form getting involved, especially with her singing talent.  Jeannette also led me into a deeper prayer life.  Without the ability to pray together, I doubt we could have made it.  Prayer changes things.  So does encouragement, and Jeanette has given me an abundance of it.  When I speak to groups, I like to ask them, “How do you know when somebody needs encouragement?”  After a moment of silent pondering, I answer, “If they are breathing!”

 Cathy’s life verse is Proverbs 22:1.  He said, “I memorized that verse, ‘A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches,’ in elementary school -- which was a public school. Students were required to bring a Bible verse to homeroom on Monday mornings, and one student’s verse would be selected as the verse for the week. With help from my mom, I selected Proverbs 22:1.

“I’m always conscious of keeping my name in good order. Doing that, I believe, has been paying dividends for me even now, because in the restaurant business we have to do things right each and every time, not just sometimes. A person can have a pleasant experience in a restaurant 50 times, be disappointed once and never go back.

“I teach Sunday school, and one time I asked my class, ‘How many of you would like to have one million dollars?’ All hands went up! Then I said, ‘Let me tell you something better than that -- to protect your reputation, to establish a good name and to be consistent about it.’ “One boy asked, ‘Suppose you already have a good reputation?’ “I said, ‘A reputation is something that you have to earn every day. It’s not something that you just have and that you keep automatically.’ “What we say is important, but what we do is more important.”

“It’s sad that there are dishonest leaders in the business world today, but I think we’re living in a time of greed. We want more than what we have. People think that if they have wealth, it brings all the happiness in the world. But in my dealings with business people, I find that people who are successful in business often are total failures when it comes to their family and friends, and -- far more important -- a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Sometimes people ask if they have to be a Christian to work at Chick-fil-A. I say, ‘Not at all, but we ask that you make your business decisions based on biblical principles.’

 “In 1982, when we moved into our current headquarters, I called a meeting of our executive committee to ask ourselves some important questions: ‘Why are we here?’ ‘Why are we in business?’ ‘What is our corporate purpose?’  We established the purpose that drives our company:  ‘To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us. To have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.’  We inscribed that motto on a large plaque and placed it outside the entrance of the building. It’s a constant reminder to me of how I need to conduct myself each day.

I am also dependent on prayer. The Bible teaches that we are to turn our problems over to the Lord.  We need to trust Him. He knows best, but sometimes it’s difficult to see how something good can come out of something bad. Many years ago I lost two of my brothers in an airplane accident, and that has been tough. One great thing about being a Christian is the promise that God will never leave us or forsake us.

I find many opportunities to communicate my faith. We all have opportunities that we need to take advantage of.

I founded a program called WinShape Homes for orphaned and abandoned kids. We have 12 foster homes with 125 children. I am the adopted grandpa for them. We bring the children to Sunday school and church and midweek prayer meetings. Many of the children have come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  God has been good to me.  I want to keep my priorities in the right order and remember where my strength comes from. 

"I believe the Bible to be a roadmap for our life and a blueprint for our life, and we could do very well to not only read the Bible, but put the Bible into practice.  You can memorize the Bible if you want to, but unless it causes you to evaluate yourself [by] what it's been saying to you, it won't do you no good. If you're just going to read and not practice [it], there's much in that Bible that tells us how to deal in business, how to treat out customers, how to treat our neighbors, widows, and children."

 Cathy's speaking style is an endearing combination of homespun aphorisms, quick-witted rebuttals and unimpeachable truisms, which he has honed over a 60-year career in fast food and through reading the Bible.  To hear Cathy discuss his life and career is anything but a straightforward, start-to-now narrative. It's a wide-ranging scattershot of anecdotes and descriptions, all laced with valuable lessons for his attentive audience.

 Cathy said he was so poor growing up in Georgia that the only toy he had to play with as a kid was a "loose tooth, and even that belonged to my brother."

 As a young man, he sold newspaper subscriptions with great success, discovering that he was a natural salesman.  After a stint in the Army, he sold his car in 1946 and, with additional cash from a brother, bought a piece of land on which he opened a southern-style diner.

 Later, they would open a second unit, about which Cathy said he had mixed feelings. "Oftentimes, I wished I had just one restaurant, 'cause over a period of time you realize it is difficult to concentrate when you have two units," he said. "But you know, the Lord took care of that for me: He burned the first place down about 10 years later."

 How do you respond to people who ask the question, why did this Sept. 11 happen?

TC: There are a lot of things that happen in our lives that we don't understand. I've had personal experiences that I never understood. I lost two brothers in a plane crash back in 1948. One of them was my business partner. I've never been able to understand why this happened. There were two others with them and all four of them perished in the crash.  Not long after that I had two restaurants and one of them burned to the ground. I never understood that. So I think the only thing that can carry me through situations like this is my faith in the Lord that He will always be with me. Regardless of the circumstances He is with us. A lot of things in life happen that we don't understand and never will understand. There comes a time in our lives where we can't solve our own problems and that's when we have to turn to the Lord as our Good Shepherd. He will protect us and watch over us and help us to get through situations like this. America is a good place to live and probably the best place to live in the world but we sometimes have it too good and we forget what's important. We need to be reminded what's important and what's not important, and that,s happening now.

 In addition to presiding over one of the most successful restaurant chains in America, Cathy is a dedicated husband, father and grandfather. His two sons, Dan, 48, and Don ("Bubba"), 47, have both followed their father in learning the business from the ground up. Dan became president of Chick-fil-A in June 2001 and Bubba is senior vice president of Chick-fil-A, Inc., and president of the Chick-fil-A Dwarf House division. His daughter, Trudy, is the youngest of the three children. She and her husband, John, have returned to the United States from Brazil where they served as missionaries. Cathy and his wife Jeannette have 12 grandchildren and more than 125 "foster grandchildren."

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